


dreams of water

by thebearjew



Category: Fantastic Four (2015)
Genre: Drabbles, Gen, M/M, Mini things, Relaxed writing, collection, ideas
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-20
Updated: 2015-11-11
Packaged: 2018-04-22 14:54:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4839629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebearjew/pseuds/thebearjew
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a collection of benreed things</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. up late

“Hey.”

Reed stops rubbing the bridge of his nose at the sound of Ben’s voice. He tilts his head back, and Ben is there, adorably sleep rumpled in that ugly red Christmas sweater he bought ironically, and some soft sleep pants. Ben walks closer, kissing Reed on the lips.

“You’ve been working too long,” he says, his thumbs gently digging into Reed’s shoulders.

“Almost done,” Reed mumbles, sighing blissfully as Ben keeps massaging. Fuck that feels nice.

“Yeah?” Ben drops kisses to the tops of Reed’s head. “I got something real nice for you in the bedroom.”

He stops massaging, and Reed hears his footsteps echo out the study. Reed himself sits slumped, eyes closed, in the chair, weighing the pros and cons of forty-eight more minutes of work versus Ben’s cock.

He sighs one more time—

 

 

—and gets up. Well, he tries to but he can’t. 

His eyes fly open and he looks down to see his arms and legs bound to the chair he’s sitting in. he looks around and realizes he’s in the badlands.

“Shadowbringer,” a voice calls to him.

And it’s Ben, but His skin is pale, almost a bone white. He’s still wearing his sleep clothes, but they’re dirty and torn, and he’s scratched up like he’s been fighting.

“Ben, no.” Reed stops struggling, but only when he sees Ben continue to step backwards, and the cliff drop ahead, does he renew his thrashing. “Please—“

“Shadowbringer,” he teases. And he looks right at Reed and murmurs something rough in that language, the one that stirs up the deep-rooted thrumming underneath Reed’s ribcage.

Reed looks away. “That’s not true,” he says.

The cuts on Ben’s face bleed black, and His hands are drenched in blood. He tilts his head, his lips curling into something beautiful. And deadly. Something cruel.

“You gonna catch me this time?” He smirks, eyes narrowing as he takes another step backwards.

Reed doesn’t say anything, he’s too busy fighting the lump of raw emotion in his throat. His ties have disappears and stand up, taking a step forward as Ben takes a step back.

“Are you gonna catch me?”

And Reed darts forward just as Ben takes his final step off the cliff—

 

 

—and Reed awakes with a jolt, unsheathing the knife from under his pillow. It takes a minute for him to realize where he is.

 _You’re not in danger_ , he tells himself.

 _You’re at home_ , he tells himself.

 _It was a dream_ , he tells himself. 

And he repeats those three things until the reactive sense of battle has left him feeling wary and even more tired, and the thrumming under his skin subsides. He sighs, fingering the hilt of his blade, before wrapping it and setting it on his nightstand.

 _You’re not in danger_ , he tells himself again. _It was a dream_

( _You’re not in danger_ )

He gets out of bed, and onto shaky feet. And He finds himself walking downstairs.

( _You’re not in danger_ )

He passes Sue, watching TV like normal. He says hi, but she ignores him, like normal.

( _You’re not in danger_ )

He may not be in danger, but he is not safe, a crucial distinction he has learned to make, but a lesson forged solely in blood.

“Nightmares.” Sue doesn’t ask, as so much state.

“Yes,” he says, quickly filling a glass with water, and taking a sip to avoid saying anything else. 

"Johnny felt you from the other side of the city." She continues. “But there’s a bottle of t—“

“I drank the rest of it.”

Sue turns around to look at him. “That was supposed to last you the entire month.”

He says nothing, but continues to look at her, her skin made opalescent by the glow of the TV screen, and she stares back as he carries his glass and ascends the rest of the stairs. 

“You need to be careful,” she calls out to him, but he pretends not to listen, and instead hurries back into the protection of his room, where he paces for a little bit, but not too long. He downs his water, gets back into the bed, and checks his knife. He turns, staring at the other side of the bed, double checks his knife, and flops onto his back. His hands start to shake again, and no amount of false bravery or breathing regulation will help when the dreams come again.

(His hands eventually stop shaking, and when they do, he squeezes his eyes shut and tries not to think about the side of the bed that’s been empty for two years.)


	2. children of a lesser god

Reed and Eleanor are standing in the kitchen, combing through the contents of their cabinet, when she suddenly straightens up and hits him with the suspicious side-eye. “You know dad’s allergic to pineapples?”

Reed looks at her awkwardly. “Yeah.”

“Okay.” She continues to stare at him, all ninety pounds apprehension. “You said that last time—“

“I know, I know. That’s why we’re doing this now, so something like last time doesn’t happen again, okay?”

“Ok,” she says, but her side-eye doesn’t lessen in intensity. “What about chocolate cake?”

“I don’t know…” Reed says. Because he knows it will be a porcine flying, blizzard covered day in hell before Ben would willing put chocolate cake in his mouth. Fudge? No problem. Brownies? Sign him the fuck up, but as soon as it crosses over into cake territory, you might as well’ve shot his puppy or something. Reed knows, but he’s not going to crush his daughter’s dreams. “Sounds an awful lot like the kind of cake you like to eat.” He counters with an eyebrow raise, and an impressive side-eye of his own.

She looks completely guilty, and Reed mentally fist pumps and adds a tally to his ‘being a good parent’ ledger’.

“However—“

A series of rapid taps hit the table, and Reed whispers “Act natural”, before he and Eleanor loop their pinkies together and turn around, indeed trying to act “natural”. It doesn’t work. 

Eleanor is shuffling her feet and looking a little too innocent, and everybody knows it’s the universal kid gesture for ‘I’m hiding something that I don’t want you to know about’. And Reed. Reed already knows it’s game over because all Ben has to do is look at him a certain way, but Ben’s already looking at him, but it’s not in that way. He’s looking at Reed with a mixture of scowly bitchface (the one Eleanor is starting to grow into) and wary resignation as if Reed destroyed something again by means of science.

(But in Reed’s defense, he only blew up the microwave and oven, like five times.)

Ben wiggles four of his fingers in front of his mouth, before gesturing to the both of them.

“ _What are you talking about?_ ”

Reed and Eleanor look at each other, and he signs “ _Surprise_ ”, just as she signs “ _Secret_.”

“ _Secret surprise?_ ”

They both nod.

Ben shakes his head, and looks at Eleanor. “ _Go get your shoes on, you need to go to school._ ”

And with that command Eleanor rushes off, leaving Reed facing off against Ben.

“ _A secret surprise_.” Ben repeats.

“ _It’s a birthday surprise?_ ”

“ _Right._ ” 

“ _Reed, I said—_ “

“ _I don’t know what you’re talking about_.”

“ _We just had this conversa—_ “

“ _I forgot._ ”

“ _I kinda just wanted to hang out with the two of you. You know this_.”

“ _Well, your daughter wanted to do something special for you_.”

Ben purses his lips, but Reed kisses his frown away. “ _We’re doing something special for you. Get over it._ ”

A small cough distracts him from Ben’s lips, but it’s Eleanor, shoes on and back pack hanging from her shoulders.

“ _That’s gross. You’re being gross_ ,” she signs with the scandalized attitude of ‘Adults are being weird why are they so weird’

“ _Alright. Love you, talk to you later_ ,” he kisses Reed again quickly and addresses Eleanor with something that looks like ‘school’ and ‘idiot’.

\---

“ _So, a birthday surprise?_ ”

“ _No_ ,” Reed signs, looking directly at him. “ _Not saying a thing_.”

“ _Right_ ,” Ben moves from his position on the bathroom door to join Reed on the bed.

“ _But I pinky promised Eleanor, sorry_.” Sorry not sorry. 

“ _Pinky promises, I respect those_.” Ben concedes. “ _You’re turning my own daughter against me—_ “

" _It's like you don't know me at all. Like we haven't been married for three years_."

Ben rolls his eyes. “ _You know you don’t have to do anything for my birthday_ ,” He smiles a tiny smile, stroking Reed’s cheek. “ _Really_.” 

“ _Yes we do. And it’s already been done_.” Reed bites Ben’s thumb and smiles back.

“ _Fine. Fine fine fine_.” Ben scoots under the covers, getting in a comfortable position to spoon up behind Reed. “ _Since my fate's already been sealed. But I just want you to know that I’m allergic to pineapples_.”

He doesn’t even try to dodge the pillow Reed hurdles towards his face.


	3. i think i stole your girlfriend's underwear

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fyi: the Carolina reaper is the hottest chili pepper ever

“Well, how hot is he?”

Reed says nothing, but more than anything he’s trying to stop this conversation cold in its tracks. 

“On a scale of one to thermonuclear explosion,” Sue says. “For science purposes.”

It’s always super suspicious when she butts into his lack-of love life, or lack-of life in general, but from prior experience, he knows the best way out of her sights (and out of her mind), is always through.

“Carolina reaper,” he answers. “Also, I’m trying to work.”

She looks at him for a couple of seconds, before throwing an eraser at his head.

\---

“I think I stole your girlfriend’s underwear,” Reed says.

Hot Laundry guy immediately stops what he’s doing, and turns his head slowly to stare at Reed impassively, and fuck fuck, only serial killers do that weird slow head turn thing, and this is the moment where Reed realized he’s about to get serial axed murdered at one fifty-three in the morning, on a Thursday and this is a weirdass conversation to be having with a straight dude, ‘I stole your girlfriend’s underwear’ really, that’s what he opened up with no wonder he’s about fucking killed, what kind of fucking creepy pervert does he have to be to admit to stealing some guy’s girlfriend’s underwear?

( _This is not how you make friends, Reed_ his conscious, which oddly sounds like Sue, is telling him, but another part of his mind is reminding of the numerous occasion he knows Hot Laundry Guy checked out his ass, so he can’t be that straight. Hopefully this is a misunderstanding)

He doesn’t want to die because he can’t seem to stick his foot far enough down his throat, _he’s too young to die_ , he’s only finished one of his PhDs, and Sue still seems determined to kill him—

“I—I mean,” Reed amends, “What had _happened_ was, I was doing my laundry, and I found some underwear and they’re not mine, and they’re not my roommate’s—not that I know what kind of underwear she wears because I don’t, I don’t snoop through her underwear drawer it’s _rude_ to go through peoples things she told me that after I brought them home, so I figured they might be yours,” Reed halts awkwardly, “Or maybe your girlfriend’s. Unless they are yours which is totally okay you know, I just—“ 

He might as well quit while he’s ahead, say goodbye to everything he’s ever loved, if the growing tick in Hot Laundry Guy’s eye is anything to go by. It takes a couple of seconds for Reed to realize that he’s trying not to laugh.

“—you know, I just thought that you might be missing them?”

“Well,” Hot Laundry guy says slowly, his smile growing bigger after letting some chuckles loose and fuck if that doesn’t jack his hotness rating from ‘Carolina reaper’ to ‘a thousand suns’ , “The good news is I’m single, so they’re _not_ my girlfriend’s.”

“Right,” Reed says, because of course. But he’s relieved. Not only is he alive for another night, but he can commence with his two-year seduction plan. “Right, yeah okay, so I’m gonna—“ _Brain myself against the wall and pretend like I didn’t just embarrass myself in front of a hot person I kind of wanna sleep with_ "—go. Right—“

“I’m not too interested in women either.” 

“Wow,” Reed says. It’s the only thing he can say after his brain shuts down at Hot Laundry Guy’s display of blatant ogling. “Um—“

“Reed,” he interrupts gently, with that lovely smile on his face. “Do you like doughnuts?”

“Um.” Reed blinks unsurely, his higher cognitive abilities starting to come back online. “I have gluten sensitives.”

“Alright then, coffee?” He revises. “I’m sure there’s something we can find out here.”

“Okay,” Reed says, and then smiles.

\---

They end up squished together in a booth at a diner.

(“I’m Ben,” he introduces himself.

“I’m Reed,” Reed says, “but you already knew that.”)

They talk. They talk and talk and talk about anything and everything. Sometimes their knees knock, and when they do, Ben smiles, and the tips of Reed’s ears and the bridge of his nose flush red.

(Reed notices Ben looks personally satisfied every time he does blush, and vows to do it as much as possible).

Ben talks about his cars and space, and Reed talks about cats and his research. He proceeds hesitantly, because he remembers what Sue said about boring people with his work but Ben nods seriously and asks about structural capabilities and how they plan on bring the organic matter back, and it takes the all the power of baby Jesus and the Holy Ghost to refrain from becoming fully erect, but it doesn’t really work because he can feel himself chubbing up regardless.

(“Aerospace-mechanics,” Ben says, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly and having the absolute _nerve_ to blush and look _embarrassed_. “I’ve always been interested in space,” he sips his coffee, making direct eye contact.

Reed is saved from whimpering/making weird noises by their waitress coming to refill their coffee cups. It does nothing for his awkward boner.)

And he’s having a moment of internal panic, because not only is Ben hot, but smart too and this bumps his hotness rating from ‘a thousand suns’ to ‘Satan’s asscrack’, and Reed can’t handle any more of this, he _can’t_ , because his insides might liquefy and he might _die_ because Ben is so so _so_ perfect and he could just weep at how complete things are looking.

(He doesn’t want to jinx anything, though. He knows the universe has some sort of auto-notification thing that lets it know whenever he’s happy, just so it can bite him in the ass. Mark, Amy, Scott, and Victor are all proof of that.)

They talk more and more, and as the night fades into a dusty blue, Reed finds he’s no less enamored with Ben than he was before, even more so now. He likes space. He’s not bored with Reed’s research.

He has a pet cat that he _literally_ saved from a tree once. And Reed loves cats.

   
It’s about five in the morning when they pay and leave. They walk back to the complex, holding hands and when they end up in front of the side door to the laundry room, Ben kisses him and presses a slip of paper into Reed’s hands.

“Call me,” he says and ninjas back into the building.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> also, i realize i use italics and parentheses too much.
> 
> (i regret nothing)


	4. hey, hey, you, you, i don't like your boyfriend

"Just one second." 

Reed takes his phone out of his pocket. It's a text from Ben, with pictures. The first one is of him all sweaty and gorgeous. He’s flexing and it reads _swol_ which, wow yes. And the second is of Ben holding up a chibi drawing of Reed doing science. He's wearing a puppy dog look of sadness, and the text reads, _miss u_. Reed smiles a bit but the sound of Victor coughing brings him back to reality.

"Reed." Victor clenches his jaw angrily. “I’m sorry, is what I have to say unimportant? Am I wasting your time?”

"Oh, umm," he starts, awkwardly. The tops of his cheeks are red, and he’s just been reminded that he hasn’t called Ben in a couple of days. "Sue’s nice and all but—hey. Wanna see a picture of my boyfriend?"

And Reed whips out his phone again, thumbing through his photo library before shoving it in Victors face.

"That's Ben." He says with a ridiculous smile. The first picture is of him bent over the hood of his car. "We’ve been together for a year and half. He's a mechanical genius.” He tells Victor matter of factly, the pride obvious in his voice.

“And that's us on his birthday.” Ben’s got sleepy eyes and a pillow half shoved over his face. Reed is smiling. “I woke him up at midnight”

“And the aquarium.” Flip

“And prom.”

“And—“ Reed pulls his phone back because that picture is not safe for work. “And us at the pier, and—" Reed looks up at Victor who, now that he notices, looks a little green. "You okay?"

"I have to go right now," Victor says. "Immediately."

"Okay," Reed says. More picture opportunities for him. "By the way, could you tell Dr. Storm we're finished?"

"You're finished?"

"Yeah, Sue'll show you if you ask real nice." He does this weird leer thing with his mouth and eyebrows, but it only succeeds in making Victor look greener. "I'm going to go—" _Call my boyfriend and jack off to the sound of his voice_ "—take a nap."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> how this scene should've gone, let's be real.


	5. a funny thing happened on the way to thor's hammer

Ben is lying in bed, trying to sleep. But it’s not quite working; it seems like tonight is one of those nights where sleep eludes him, his bruised ribs notwithstanding. But it’s almost perfect, because he’s in that hazy half-awake/half-dreaming stage, and he just needs something to tip him over the edge.

He sighs, wriggling in bed, before realizing his phone is vibrating. He blinks blearily at the ceiling, before turning his head towards the alarm clock. _3:49_.

“Grimm,” he picks up the phone, answering curtly.

_“Hi Ben.”_ There’s a pause. _“It’s Reed.”_

“Hey.” He glance at the clock again. It should be around midnight out there. “What’s up?”

_“Nothing. You’re not in New Mexico, are you?”_

“No, I’m in new York.” Ben sits up slowly, in a way his ribs agree with. He’s a little concerned now. “Why?”

_“Um, I’m in New Mexico,”_ his voice drops to a murmur. _“I kind of need some help.”_

That sets off internal warning bells and he gets out of bed, transitioning into agent mode as he tries to find pants that won’t further aggravate his leg. “As in, ‘someone’s trying to kill me’ type help, or—“

_“One of my experiments landed me in the hospital,”_ he blurts out. 

Ben stops, then pulls his shirt over his head. There’s eight seconds of silence, before he pinches the bridge of his nose and says, “Reed.”

_“I know what that sounds like.”_

“Reed.”

Reed sighs petulantly. Ben is shaking his head as he ruffles through his underwear drawer, pulling out multiple knives.

“Okay,” Ben says, strapping a couple knives to his body. He throws the rest in a backpack. “Are you safe?”

_“Yes.”_

“Reed,” he starts seriously. “It’s going to be a while before I can get to you. Like, four or five hours.” Ben double checks his bag, and heads to the kitchen. “Will you be okay?”

_“I will be fine, Ben.”_ Reed’s voice has gotten breathier and lower. _“I am safe here with the nurse, at the hospital. Literally the safest.”_

Ben grabs another knife from his silverware drawer, and doesn’t think about the last time Reed said that. “That sounds fake, but okay.” 

_“Your flight leaves from LaGuardia in about forty-five minutes,”_ Reed continues. _“You’re flying into Santa Fe. I don’t think I’m far from the airport—“_ There some muffled chattering on the other end. _“—I’m not, like ten minutes away from the airport, but I’ll text you in a couple minutes. The address to the hospital.”_

“It’s gonna take me thirty minutes to get to LaGuardia.”

Ben dumps a box of granola bars and a couple of bottles of water in his backpack. 

_“Run fast.”_

Ben rolls his eyes, and his ribs twinge something awful at the mention of anything heavier than breathing, but he ignores it. Cramming a couple of slices of bread in his mouth, he waters his cactus, giving it a pet and some encouraging words.

He’s halfway down the street, hailing a cab less than a minute later.

\---

“Richards,” Ben smiles happily, and squeezes Reed’s ankle. Reed grunts, and opens one eye. He grins once he sees Ben.

“Ben. Hi.” he slurs. “It wasn’t Stane or Hammer this time.”

“It’s too soon for that to be funny.” His eyes glance over Reed, lingering at his bandaged hands, before he checks the label on the IV bag. It’s a common enough painkiller. He looks at the windows, underneath the bed, and does a visual sweep of the room.

“You’re doing that agent thing again.”

“It’s saved my life a couple of times,” Ben shrugs unapologetically. _Yours too._

“Ben the Badass,” Reed smiles dopily. “Agent Sexy Badass.”

Ben rolls his eyes fondly. “I read your chart,” he begins, pulling up a chair beside Reed’s bed. He palms his ribs. “Second degree chemical burns. Must’ve been one hell of an experiment.”

“I made jet fuel!”

“You were playing with jet fuel?”

“I _created_ jet fuel,” Reed corrects him.

Ben makes a noise that sounds like ‘Right’, and he pats Reed’s leg again. Reed’s still looking at him with that half-lidded, dopey look. “How was Ukraine?”

“You’re not supposed to know about that.”

“I was worried,” Reed’s eyes widen, and he pokes out his lip. “ _Worried_.”

“You can’t keep hacking into SHIELD every time you’re worried,” Ben points out. “It’s illegal, and it’s why they don’t like you.”

Reed waves a bandaged hand lazily. “I’m smarter than them, that’s why they don’t like me.”

“And that’s why you’re here at the hospital, with second degree burns you got from playing with chemicals,” he glares pointedly at Reed, “because you’re _so_ smart.” But then realization awashes Ben. “Aren’t you supposed to be at work?” 

“Mandatory paid leave,” Reed says. “Ms. Potts is scary.” He then tries to scowl at Ben, but he’s so high, it only succeeds in making him look like a curly-haired sad puppy. It makes Ben smile on the inside. “I could be here for work.”

“You just told me you’re on leave. And Stark doesn’t make weapons anymore.”

“There are many non-weapon applications for jet fuel.”

“It’s not work related.”

“It could be!”

“Is it?”

Reed pouts. “No.”

The nurse walks in at that moment, and Ben ignores Reed for a bit in favor of listening to the nurse explain how to properly change Reed’s bandages.

\---

“Where are you staying?” Ben asks. They’re exiting the hospital, medication in hand, but Reed is swaying slightly, and clutching at Ben’s arm.

“Puente Antiguo,” Reed answers, like that supposed to mean something to him.

“That doesn’t mean anything to me.”

“Thirty minutes that way.” He points in some random direction. And yawns.

Ben just heaves a tired sigh.

**Author's Note:**

> this is a thing where i put things i write because i'm stressed, or i want to play around/explore, or have ideas i like, but don't have the skill and time to devote to fully fleshing out , or scenes that didn't make it into what i've written/am writing.
> 
> short(ish) and extremely nonsensical, this'll pretty much be updated whenever.


End file.
